If you like Pinkberry but have not tried the new coconut flavor, you should.

First thing I saw at the High Line Street Fair… a pink bug.

Then the angle changed and the bug turned around… it was a real leggy, pink bug.

On high heels.

Obviously there were more bugs at the street fair.

Bugs, and some real tall people…

The plants and flowers were quite exotic for a public park (though wikipedia calls it a “greenway”).

A very interesting stair-like seating area… there’s glasses at the front and you can see the cars driving from underneath you, through the glasses…

Leaving High Line we headed to Soba-Ya, one of the main reasons we came in the city. Some think it’s the best soba house in NYC. I know there’s another called Soba-Koh and would like to go some day to compare…

Chawan Mushi, a Japanese egg custard dish. It’s basically cooked the same way as the Chinese 蛋羹 (steam eggs), however the presentation by the chef at Soba-Ya made it into something much more wonderful than what it actually is.

The sake, the cold dishes (Chizimi Konnyaku, Fried eggplant in broth, Lotus Root in sour plum paste), and the cutest spoon holder ever seen in a restaurant

Someone said on yelp that if you go to a Japanese restaurant that specializes in soba noodles, you should order the cold version over the hot ones (at least the first time) because you can get a better feel of the complexity of the noodle’s texture when it’s cold. After a long hot summer day that advice was very easy to follow for us.

Milk Tofu.

Perfection.

I think I will remember this place for a long time.

Afterword

We found on the back of the business card that there are like 8 other Japanese specialized food places operated by the same group that runs this restaurant: a Ramen/homemade Gyoza place, a Sake bar, a Japanese Teahouse, a Shabushabu/BBQ place, a small take out place for Takoyaki/Okonomiyaki (章鱼小丸子), to name a few, all within 3 blocks. I am definitely coming back to East Village again.